Tag Archives: MySpace Monday

88-Keys is an producer out of Harlem who’s going on tour with Dialated Peoples and Aceylone. The tour, Fresh Rhymes and Videotape and looks to involve 2K Sports, the same company that brought you the 2K Bounce tour a couple of years back that first reunited Tribe.

He’s even better known for having done beats for insanely amazing people like Q-Tip and Mos Def. He’s even done some work for major sellers like Kanye. In case you want to know, he’s the one that came up with the beat for “Thieves in the Night”, one of the dopest tracks on the Black Star album.

To give you a quick taste of his style, his a slower-paced “Deal Breakers”

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And here’s “Cuddle Bums” from his MySpace page.

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Uptown Funk Empire is hosted on SouLab Records, a small outfit dedicated to modern soul music.

I kind of admit that I love the idea of having a label dedicated entirely to soul and funk music. It’s an artform that still holds so much potential but is slowly dying off thanks to the growth of other, worse, forms of music.

UFE is not exactly what it sounds like, either. It’s one man, Bruno “Patchworks” Hovart, who mixes it all himself and features other, cooler singers. He’s based in France and the Euro-influence definitely appears on some of the tracks.

This guy is seriously all over the place too. He’s constantly got three or four projects going, with UFE being one his more recent endeavors. What’s interesting is that most of his musical groups have been based around jazz music and celebrating that phenomena. It appears he’s taken the chance to really celebrate the Funk that he loves so much.

Without further adieu, here’s “NOW” by the Uptown Funk Empire, featuring Juan Rozoff.

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Shirley Bunnie Foy is a pretty talented jazz singer. She was born in New York and eventually moved to Paris to continue her musical career. She’s been around for decades, and actually was a part of that ground-breaking group, the Dell-Tones (not to be confused with the Australian Delltones).

If you’re interested, she’s got her lengthy biography translated into several languages on her MySpace page, as linked above.

Her voice really has a special quality to it. It combines some of that old-timeyness that makes Billie Holiday so amazing with a new, soulful vibe.

I know she doesn’t necessarily qualify as a typical MySpace Monday post, but the sheer fact that she’s been making music for like 50 years and still manages to have a MySpace page that gets some serious attention is more than enough to make me want to link to her.

Anyways, here is her rendition of “Love”.

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Santogold is no stranger to the press these days. She’s been featured in magazines all over the continent. Most importantly, she’s also been invited to perform at Rock the Bells alongside some of the greatest hip hop acts ever.

Her album is one of the few that I’ve seen that managed to get Five Stars in Toronto’s Eye Weekly. Santogold (whose real name is Santi White) has apparently had the (un)fortunate occurrence of being nicknamed the new M.I.A. Though she definitely doesn’t sound anything like her. To get a sense, here’s a track of Santogold’s called Les Artistes.

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I’m not too sure what else to say about her except the fact that I’ve become quite the fan. I think she’s incredibly talented, even if I’m not a fan of tons of her music. In that way, I guess she is like M.I.A. Both are acquired tastes. But you won’t regret trying. To give you a better sense of who she is, I’ll leave you a quote from the Eye Weekly article.

It’s a good thing we didn’t try to call her “hip hop” or “r&b” or anything, because she’s come out in a news article to call those who compare her to hip hop as being racist. She claims she made a pop record, and that’s it. In my mind, it’s idiotic to call people racist for bringing up these comparisons, considering she’s been invited to headline at major hip hop festivals and also since her album is definitely being marketed by her label with certain comparisons being made.

Analog Giant pointed me towards a group called Chin Chin!, the newest group from Definitive Jux. This label has brought you some of the best hip hop in the last few years, artists like Aesop Rock, Murs, RJD2, Mr. Lif and many, many more. Apparently even Del the Funky Homosapien has joined their ranks.

And yet Chin Chin is very, very far from hip hop. They describe their music as a combination of funk and disco house.

It’s a tough concept to grasp, but one that seems to be working for them. Plus, their website has to be one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen. You definitely need to check it out.

I’m actually a big fan of these guys these days. It’s an upbeat, fresh little approach. Maybe not all that serious in terms of deep meaning or anything, but stupid amounts of fun to party to. Check out Appetite, a song from their debut album.